BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Education: B.Ed., Geography and English (1961), University of British Columbia; M.A., English (1963), University of British Columbia; Ph.D., English (1966) University of Leeds, dissertation on the twentieth-century Bildungsroman.

Teaching career: English Department, University of British Columbia (1965-2003), with specialization in Canadian and Commonwealth/Postcolonial Literatures; named University Killam Professor in 2001; Brenda and David McLean Chair in Canadian Studies, UBC (1995-97); current position: University Killam Professor Emeritus.

Published critical works include: studies of the modern postcolonial novel (Articulating West; Among Worlds), books about space and place in literature (Land Sliding; Borderlands), books about the history, structure, and social contexts of short fiction (Dreams of Speech and Violence; Reading Mansfield and Metaphors of Form; Tropes and Territories), literary history (A History of Canadian Literature); reference works (Encyclopedia of Literature in Canada); studies of irony (Grandchild of Empire); and over 400 essays and reviews.

Creative works include: several volumes of poetry, among them Science Lessons; Stone/Rain; Riverbook & Ocean; Underwood Log (shortlisted for a Governor General’s Award); YVR (City of Vancouver Book Award, 2012)
and Touching Ecuador; and four books for children, among them Vanilla Gorilla and Dream Helmet (both illustrated by Vivian Bevis); and The Year I Was Grounded.

Anthologies include: Modern Stories in English (with H.J. Rosengarten); Active Voice and Literature in English (both with W.E. Messenger); Currents (with Kevin McNeilly, Noel Currie, and W.E. Messenger); Canadian Short Fiction; Inside the Poem; and Native Writers and Canadian Writing.